New Metro timetable starts today - 285 new weekly services for Frankston, Craigieburn, Sydenham and Werribee

These were implemented several weeks before the 2010 state election. They include a major weekday off-peak frequency upgrade for the Frankston line. However there was a complex half and half pattern. Weekends remained at every 20 min but their timetables were to be upgraded to every 10 min a couple of years later. 285 weekly services, with 45 of these during the peak, were added. 

Excerpt from Metro website: 

The changes mainly focus on the Craigieburn, Sydenham, Werribee and Frankston lines, however, more services, greater capacity, and altered running times are among the changes being made on other lines.

The major improvements include:

• The Werribee line gains four new peak services each weekday, while the busy Sydenham line receives three peak services each weekday, and the Craigieburn receives two new peak services each weekday.

• The Frankston line will increase its service frequency from 15 minutes to 10 minutes between 8:45am and 4:15pm each weekday. Half of those will run via the city loop, and the other half will run direct to Flinders Street. Service frequency in the evening will also increase on the Frankston line, reducing from the current 30 minute frequency to a 20 minute frequency after 7pm.

• The Epping, Hurstbridge, Belgrave, Lilydale and Glen Waverley lines will benefit on weeknights and weekends, with most services gaining an increase in capacity, running as six-carriage trains instead of three-carriages.

These changes are Phase 2 of the 2010 Metro timetable changes. Phase 1 in June 2010 concentrated on the Frankston, Pakenham and Cranbourne lines. The advice given to passengers about Phase 2 is below. 
https://web.archive.org/web/20101015005857/http://www.metrotrains.com.au/About-us/News/New-timetable-from-Sunday-brings-285-extra-services-a-week.html

To explain the changes Metro set up a 'Destination Better' website. This has a clickable map with details about changes on each line (which still works in the archived version). See it here: 
https://web.archive.org/web/20101022063604/http://destinationbetter.metrotrains.com.au/

See blog post from 12/10/2010 for more information. 

Note: This item was added retrospectively for posterity.